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California Air Resources Board News Clips for March 11, 2010. 
This is a service of the California Air Resources Board’s Office
of Communications.  You may need to sign in or register with
individual websites to view some of the following news articles.

Going Green Vs. Going Broke. Republicans say California can't
afford its global warming law. But can we afford not to cut
pollution? Will cutting carbon kill jobs in California? That's
the premise of a November ballot initiative proposed by
Republican lawmakers, whose cause got a boost this week from a
report by the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office that
concluded the state's landmark global warming law might hurt
employment. Posted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-climate11-2010mar11,0,516481,print.story
http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/03/10/10greenwire-calif-ghg-emissions-law-will-cost-jobs-in-shor-42737.html

Climate Change Conversation Twisted In Media Of All Sizes. Less
than a month after CNN proclaimed "Last Decade Was Warmest Ever,"
a headline in Britain's Daily Mail shouted that a top climate
scientist had taken a "U-turn" and now "Admits: There Has Been No
Global Warming Since 1995." Pity the poor reader, whipsawed in
recent weeks by what appear to be conflicting signals on one of
the most complex and momentous subjects of our time. Leading
scientists reported their consensus that the Earth continues to
warm. Posted.
http://www.sacbee.com/2010/03/11/v-print/2599283/climate-change-conversation-twisted.html

Calif. Regulator Says 'No' To Ratepayer Funding For Fuel Cell
Projects. San Francisco -- An attempt by California's largest
private utilities to use ratepayer funds to bankroll fuel-cell
projects has been rejected by an administrative law judge at the
state's Public Utilities Commission in a preliminary ruling on
the matter. Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California
Edison Co. have separately asked the PUC for approval of a plan
that would charge their customers for the capital costs
associated with fuel-cell projects at several University of
California and California State University campuses. Posted.
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/03/11/6

U.N. Official Sees Limited Growth In Offset Market. Credits
available to offset greenhouse gas emissions under a U.N. program
will increase by only about a fifth this year, less than analysts
have predicted, according to a member of the board overseeing the
U.N. program. Shafqat Kakakhel, who serves on the nine-member
Executive Board of the United Nations' Clean Development
Mechanism, said the board expects to issue between 148 million
and 152 million tons' worth of credits this year. Posted. 
http://www.eenews.net/climatewire/print/2010/03/11/9

Questions About Research Slow Climate Change Efforts. State
College, Pa. — The violent threats are not what bother Michael
Mann the most. He's used to them. Instead, it's the fact that his
life's work — the effort to stop global warming — has been under
siege since last fall. That's when Mann suddenly found himself in
the middle of the so-called "climategate" scandal, in which more
than 1,000 e-mails among top climate scientists — including Mann
— were obtained illegally by hackers and published on the
Internet. Posted.
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/environment/2010-03-10-warming_N.htm
http://www.aolnews.com/world/article/un-launches-independent-review-of-international-panel-on-climate-change/19392773
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/10/AR2010031002891.html?hpid=topnews

More Americans Say Global Warming Exaggerated: Poll. Washington
(Reuters) - A growing number of Americans, nearly half the
country, think global warming worries are exaggerated, as more
people also doubt that scientific warnings of severe
environmental fallout will ever occur, according to a new Gallup
poll. The new doubts come as President Barack Obama is pressuring
the Congress to produce legislation significantly cutting
smokestack emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases
blamed for climate change problems. Posted.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62A3TG20100311

Letter: Global Warming Hoax Exposed. Nearly 20 years after first
theorized, scientists have now confirmed it was the impact of an
asteroid on the Yucatan Peninsula that caused the mass extinction
of dinosaurs. Happily, a similarly earth-changing drama has
recently been witnessed by the entire planet — although mostly
ignored by our inept, hopelessly compromised, mainstream media. I
am referring, of course, to the long-overdue exposure of the
global warming/climate change hoax — chronicled in many honest
publications and by competent news organizations worldwide.
Posted. http://www.chicoer.com/opinion/ci_14653543

World's Top Scientists To Review Climate Panel. United
Nations—At a tumultuous time in U.N.-led climate negotiations,
one of the world's most credible scientific groups agreed
Wednesday to plug the recent cracks in the authoritative reports
of the United Nations' Nobel Prize-winning global warming panel.
Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/environment/ci_14647715

The Buzz: Ted Costa, Who Pushed To Suspend AB 32, Now Opposes
Effort. A leader in pushing for a ballot initiative to suspend
Assembly Bill 32, California's landmark greenhouse-gas emissions
law, said Wednesday he now opposes the effort and is willing to
write a ballot argument against it. Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/03/11/1854736/the-buzz-ted-costa-who-pushed.html

Bay Area Workshop Seeks Ways to Reduce Emissions. Proposals for
drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions from cars and light
trucks for the nine-county Bay Area were discussed Wednesday at a
packed workshop hosted by the Metropolitan Transportation
Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments. Posted.
http://cbs5.com/environment/greenhouse.gas.emissions.2.1553874.html


Air Cleanup Penalty $29M, But Who Pays? Businesses from Stockton
to Bakersfield are on the hook for a penalty that will start at
$29 million a year because the Valley missed an air-pollution
cleanup deadline. The penalty will begin in 2012, unless the
Valley manages to achieve the unlikely goal of just a few ozone
violations over the next three years. Deciding how to pay it will
be the biggest issue of the year for the San Joaquin Valley Air
Pollution Control District, officials say. Posted.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/03/10/1854131/air-cleanup-penalty-29m-but-who.html

Turning Smartphones Into Air Quality Monitors. Intel Labs is
showing off technology that could make smartphones a lot smarter
by integrating technology that monitors ambient air quality. As
part of an annual Open House on Wednesday at the UC Berkeley
campus, Intel Labs Berkeley is demonstrating the most tantalizing
fruits of its research, including Common Sense, a technology that
would allow consumers to collect and analyze environmental data
and then share it over the Internet. "It's about air quality,"
said Anthony Joseph, director of Intel Labs Berkeley. Posted.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13924_3-10466590-64.html

Hong Kong Government Issues Warning as Air Pollution Rises. Hong
Kong’s air pollution hit high enough levels today to prompt a
government health warning to people with some heart and lung
conditions, according to the city’s Environmental Protection
Department. The government’s air pollution index exceeded 100 in
two of the three roadside stations in the city. Readings higher
than 100 mean people with illnesses including asthma and
cardiovascular diseases may “notice mild aggravation of their
health conditions” and they should “reduce physical exercise and
outdoor activities,” the department said. Posted.
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-11/hong-kong-government-issues-warning-as-air-pollution-rises.html

Loss Of Power At Wilmington Refinery Fills Air With Smoke. The
Tesoro oil refinery in Wilmington was working to resume
operations Wednesday following a power outage that prompted the
plant to activate its flares. After the disruption about 9:30
p.m. Tuesday, residents reported seeing dark plumes of smoke
billowing above the facility at 2101 E. Pacific Coast Highway.
Posted. http://www.contracostatimes.com/california/ci_14647378

Auto Firm Setting Sights On NUMMI. An electric car maker in the
Bay Area has proposed a plan to build electric vehicles at
Fremont's NUMMI plant — but the proposal faces mammoth hurdles,
including getting $1 billion in financing. Posted.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/oaklandtribune/localnews/ci_14649734

Yolo-Solano District Makes Mower Exchange Offered. The
Yolo-Solano Air Quality Management District is co-sponsoring two
mower exchange events to help reduce air pollution from
gas-powered mowers. There is a limited number of mowers, so it is
on a first-come, first-served basis for both events. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_14653685?nclick_check=1

Deforestation Conference To Turn Plans To Action. Paris—French
President Nicolas Sarkozy will open a daylong conference Thursday
of some 40 nations to start turning plans into action to save the
world's forests and help rein in the noxious gases blamed for
climate change. Posted.
http://www.contracostatimes.com/science/ci_14647899
http://www.fresnobee.com/2010/03/10/1854035/deforestation-conference-to-turn.html

Pesticide Regulators Working To Help Air Quality in the San
Joaquin Valley. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation
is pleased to announce that volatile organic compound pesticide
emissions that contribute to smog in California dropped
significantly in 2008, the first year restrictions on
agricultural fumigant applications specifically targeting air
quality were in effect. Posted.
http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/community/x1664564533/Pesticide-regulators-working-to-help-air-quality-in-the-San-Joaquin-Valley


'Cool Car' Rules Could Affect GPS. Some new so-called cool car
rules from the state are making law enforcement hot under the
collar. There are worries Wednesday night that the rules will
hurt GPS technology. GPS is used extensively by the California
Department of Corrections to monitor parolees statewide. Posted.
http://www.kcra.com/news/22805469/detail.html 

Amcan Delays Emissions Law Discussion. The issue of climate
change is warming up again in American Canyon, where a plan to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Napa County won’t be touched
for at least two months. The Napa County Transportation and
Planning Agency commissioned a “climate action framework” a year
and a half ago designed to outline plans to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions up and down Napa County under AB 32, a state law that
calls for the reduction of pollution particles to 1990 levels by
2020. Posted.
http://www.napavalleyregister.com/news/local/article_f3f8c9c0-2cc6-11df-8b0d-001cc4c03286.html

Blogs

"Integrity Abuses" Charged In Initiative To Suspend California
Climate Law. A bitter split among backers of the controversial
November ballot initiative to suspend California's 2006
first-in-the-nation global warming law broke into the open
Wednesday. Ted Costa, chief executive of People's Advocate, a
Sacramento-based anti-tax group that was an original sponsor of
the measure, told the Los Angeles Times that "big money interests
have come in and shut out the people." Posted.
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/03/ab-32-ballot-initiative-global-warming-california-climate-change.html

A Different Route to Corn-Based Fuel. Jack Huttner, the
executive vice president of Gevo, a five-year old company in
Englewood, Colo., would like to take over an ethanol plant and,
using the same base ingredients that go into corn-based ethanol –
corn and natural gas for fuel – manufacture a different molecule:
isobutanol. The company is arguing that current ethanol plants
are like old cellphones or laptops, in that they may still work,
but newer equipment can do a better job. Posted. 
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/11/a-different-route-to-corn-based-fuel/?pagemode=print

For Sooty Port Areas, Clean Affordable Trucks. Truck drivers in
New Jersey and New York are now eligible for grants and
low-interest loans for purchasing newer, cleaner trucks as part
of a $28 million program to improve air quality. Drivers can
apply to receive grants covering 25 percent of the purchase price
of a new truck and for loans with a 5.25 percent interest rate on
the remaining amount. Posted.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/for-sooty-port-areas-clean-affordable-trucks/?pagemode=print

California Global Warming Law Defenders Strike Back. Days after
the non-partisan California Legislative Analyst’s Office said the
state would suffer job losses at least in the near term from a
global warming law, (PDF) defenders are responding. The
California Business Alliance for a Green Economy, made up of
businesses that hope to profit from environmental technologies,
issued a press release Tuesday saying that AB 32 is an “economic
driver” for jobs and investment.” Posted.
http://www.nctimes.com/app/blogs/wp/?p=8083

California Utility Regulators Not Quite Ready for Fuel Cells.
While Google, Wal-Mart and other corporations have embraced fuel
cells, California regulators have turned down requests from the
state’s two biggest utilities to install the technology. In a
preliminary decision, an administrative law judge with the
California Public Utilities Commission found unwarranted an
application from Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California
to spend more than $43 million to install fuel cells that would
generate six megawatts of electricity. Posted.
http://greeninc.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/california-utility-regulators-not-quite-ready-for-fuel-cells/